The subject invention is directed generally to hologram structures, and more particularly to laminated decals that can be incorporated into a laminated identification card or the like.
Laminated identification cards such as those containing a photograph of the authorized card holder are widely used for security purposes. Laminated identification cards commonly include other human readable information as well as machine readable information contained on a magnetic strip for example.
An important consideration with laminated identification cards is counterfeiting and/or tampering. One approach to preventing counterfeiting and/or tampering is to incorporate human or machine readable holograms that are difficult into laminated identification cards so that tampering would result in damage to the hologram which would be rendered unreadable. Counterfeiting is prevented by utilizing a hologram whose construction is difficult to ascertain. However, holograms are fragile, and must remain viewable after being subject to identification card manufacturing processes, as well as normal wear and tear, and slight flexing. Some known techniques for incorporating holograms into identification cards do not provide sufficiently high yields in production. Other known techniques for incorporating holograms into identification cards reduce the destruction of the holograms but result in an identification card wherein the hologram can be removed without destroying the hologram, which defeats the purpose of providing indications of tampering.